


One Hour

by silveradept



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Gen, Trick or Treat: Treat, escape room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 00:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16336241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: The Orville is stuck in a strange pocket of space. Gordon and John will be ready to help the ship get out, once they're done with the windstorm full of sharks.





	One Hour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sidewinder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidewinder/gifts).



What was weird about the situation, Ed realized as he opened the doors to the stimulator, was not that Gordon and John were attempting to battle what looked like a windstorm with some sort of animals caught inside, but that he didn't think of it as any weirder than what they usually encountered while they were out in Union space. 

"Ah, guys?" Ed said, trying to catch their attention. "I hate to bother you, but--"

"We'll be done in a minute or two!" Gordon shouted at him, turning back to the funnel cloud full of...were those sharks?

"Greetings, Captain," Isaac said, appearing at the door of the simulator.

"Shouldn't you be helping them?" Ed said, pointing at the two Lieutenants.

"That would be against the spirit of the game," Isaac replied promptly. "Lieutenants Malloy and LaMarr boasted that they could defeat my scenario in less than an hour. I do not believe they will be able to do so, but I am quite willing to give them the opportunity."

"Wait, scenario?" Ed said, letting his confusion show.

"Yes, Captain. Lieutenants Malloy and LaMarr were attempting a 21st century phenomenon called an 'escape room,' which..."

"I'm familiar," Ed said, nodding. "How did they get to this?" he said, gesturing at where Gordon and John were grabbing what looked like a baseball bat and a hockey stick to try and deal with the flying sharks.

"The Lieutenants boasted their knowledge of 21st century movies was so 'awesome' that they could defeat any challenge presented to them that came from such a movie. They acquitted themselves remarkably well for biological life forms before encountering this scenario."

"Okay," Ed said, before leaning in to shout at his officers.

"Hey, guys? I saw on a documentary somewhere that the best way to deal with sharks is to hit them on the nose."

"Thanks, Captain!" Gordon shouted back, changing his attack to take advantage of the new knowledge. Both lieutenants seemed to make short work of the shark-storm after that.

"How's our time, Isaac?" Gordon said, panting.

"You did not make it within the hour time limit," Isaac said. "I believe the Captain has something more pressing, however."

"Right," Ed said, feeling a little silly at having been distracted by the shark...nado, or whatever it was. "The Orville's gotten stuck in some sort of negative space wedgie, and the navigation computers can't figure out where we are well enough to get us out of it. I was hoping my pilot could give it a try, assuming you're not too busy."

"On it, Captain."

"John, go with Gordon. You, too, Isaac. Maybe your Kaylon brain can help figure out what's going on."

"Yes, Captain," both of them said. Ed took one final look inside the simulator and shook his head in disbelief. He'd seen a lot of movies from the 21st century, and he couldn't decide whether to believe nobody would have watched this crap or whether they would have made a five-movie series out of it. 

"Time to go be Captain Mercer again," he sighed.

\---

"Whoa." Lieutenant Malloy said, looking out at the shifting expanse of space around the Orville.

"That's going to make me sick if I have to look at it too much," Lieutenant LaMarr said, taking his place next to Gordon.

"I can see why the autopilot had no clue what to do. I'm not sure I have a clue what to do."

"Driving us through might help," Commander Grayson said.

Gordon would never admit it to anyone, except maybe John, if they were both drunk and trying to sleep it off together in the same bed, that he really liked that Ed and Kelly were back together, at least in a command situation. They both had natural reserves of snark and were absolutely killer at using it in just the right situation. Having them in the same space meant they would use it on each other first, and that made the rest of the crew breathe a little bit easier. Neither Ed nor Kelly would use it to hurt someone intentionally, but Ed had been a wreck after Kelly had left and Gordon had to remind Ed more than a few times that what he thought was bitter irony was just mean lashing-out.

At that point, Gordon realized they hadn't moved, even though he'd turned the engines on some time ago. The space in front of them had changed, but he hadn't felt the gentle push of the ship trying to move forward.

"Commander," he said, "I don't think we're going to solve this with engines. We haven't moved."

"Did you put the hammer down?" Ed--Captain Mercer said. (He was sitting in the chair, so that meant he was Captain Mercer. That was one of the deals they'd struck when Ed had asked him to fly the Orville.)

"Yes, sir. We should be leaving trails of flame behind, but we're not going anywhere."

"Suggestions on why that might be? Anyone?" Captain Mercer was always quick to get input from his bridge staff. Gordon suspected it was to make people feel valuable and like they mattered. John insisted it was because Captain Mercer wanted to demonstrate the value of asking for help in front of Alara, after the near disaster that had happened when she'd been left in charge. Dr. Finn had told them both to shut up and let her work on their hangovers from the smoke-out they'd done with Kelly the night before. And then said they could both be right.

"Hey," John said, poking him quietly. "Does that bunch of stars over there look a little like a rabbit's ears?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Have you tried turning the ship to see if it can do that, Lieutenant?" Ed said, cutting into their conversation.

"Not yet, sir, but I don't expect it to have much eff--whoa."

Instead of the entirety of the star field shifting at the controls, only a narrow band seemed to be moving. On a whim, Lieutenant Malloy kept it turning until he felt the bunny ears had a bunny body and the tail was complete. It just needed some legs. 

"Well, that's different," Captain Mercer said. "Any other types of movement we haven't tried?"

"Several, Captain," Isaac said. "It may be worth going through them systematically to see what results happen."

As Isaac stated drawing up a list of possibilities, Lieutenant Malloy decided to try and bank the ship a little, and smiled when a different part of the star field started moving. He finished the rabbit in the sky, at which point the entirety of the star field disappeared.

For a few seconds, things seemed normal. Then the sirens started. An alien being appeared in the viewer, speaking their own language. Everyone turned to Isaac to see if he understood what was going on.

"It appears we have guessed wrong," Isaac said at the end. "And that now we have one hour to extricate ourselves or we will be destroyed."

"From what?" Captain Mercer said.

"I believe we have stumbled into an...escape room, Captain."

Captain Mercer turned to Lieutenants LaMarr and Malloy.

"You two are the best at these. I hope you can figure it out."

"Aye, Captain." they said.


End file.
